


Clearing Out the Cobwebs

by keelywolfe



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Drinking to Cope, Excessive Drinking, M/M, POV Outsider, Pre-Relationship, Spicyhoney - Freeform, Underfell Papyrus, Underfell Sans, Underswap Muffet, Underswap Papyrus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 01:12:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15718866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keelywolfe/pseuds/keelywolfe
Summary: Muffet had never intended to stay in Snowdin, but plans have a way of changing. Besides, bartenders always know more about their patrons than they should.  Why should she be the exception? Outsider POV on Spicyhoney





	Clearing Out the Cobwebs

* * *

Muffet had never intended to stay in Snowdin. She’d come here for her kin, intent on finding a way to get them out of the ruins and past the cold and ice to the safety of Hotland. As plans went, she'd utterly failed but Muffet was nothing if not persistent. Abandoning her little ones was not an option and so she'd stayed, opening a bar and restaurant, the best one in town. 

Also the only one in town but let's not split hairs. 

It was at her grand opening or rather, the day she'd unlocked the door and let Monsters inside that she'd met Papyrus. Her self-proclaimed best customer, but then, she was hardly going to argue the point. 

To start with, she'd liked him well enough from the beginning. He was amusing, sarcastic, and for all his languid ‘put it in my tab’ ways, he diligently paid that tab at the end of every week, better than a couple of other Monsters she wouldn’t name. She'd always appreciated Monsters who understood the importance of clearing a debt.

He drank too much, smoked too much, and was frankly adored by most of Snowdin. Perhaps not quite as much as his brother but to Muffet, Papyrus would always be the preferred skeleton of the pair. Muffet had her reasons. 

Once a week, she made a trip to the ruins to visit her little ones. Not long after she'd come to Snowdin, Papyrus had found her trudging her way through the snow, bundled up against the cold. He’d offered to take her on a shortcut and while she was never going to enjoy the sensation of teleporting, it was certainly better than spending a day freezing and another feeling ill while she recovered from the chill. 

At the end of the day, she was quite fond of Papyrus. And so when he brought a new friend into the bar, she wasn’t sure what to make of him.

To begin with, he was a skeleton, short in the way Sans was, though no one was going to mistake the two. For one, his signature color was marrow-red, an interesting contrast to Papyrus's orange. Even his eye lights were a harsh, glaring crimson. His teeth were jagged and sharp, like a picture of a shark she’d seen once in a librarby book. 

Papyrus didn’t introduce him as a brother or a cousin, only as Red, but she’d never seen another skeleton monster around who wasn't Papyrus's brother. It wasn’t that unusual; enough monsters had died during the war that their numbers were thin and she well understood that Snowdin wasn’t a climate for everyone. For all she knew, dozens of skeletons lived in New Home. A quick check had revealed he had LV, not at all common in the Monsters of Snowdin but not completely unusual, not after the war.

He was a chilling sight but an amusing enough fellow and he called Papyrus 'Stretch'. So long as he didn’t cause problems, she’d take Papyrus at his word that this Monster was all right. He still warranted a close eye while in her establishment and Muffet had a few to spare. Much as she trusted Papyrus, her faith didn’t extend to strangers with LV. 

She didn’t have any LV herself but then, a death that came from a thousand bites didn’t offer any.

It was only perhaps a week later that she saw yet another skeleton; they were becoming quite the trend. This one was reminiscent of Papyrus's first new friend, all leather clothes, sharpened teeth, and crimson eye lights. Maybe that was the fashion in New Home? She supposed she could check around, she did have her sources.

This one, though. He didn't order a drink, didn't offer puns and smartassery the way Papyrus and his friend had. Muffet made a point of not eavesdropping in her establishment, but then, she'd never needed to. If her kin thought she needed the information, they would give it to her.

No, this one had chosen to bring an argument with him and whatever he and Papyrus were saying to each other didn’t resemble any kindness or friendship she had ever seen. Papyrus was a creature of warmth and sarcasm, but whatever words he and the other skeleton were sharing had turned his expression cold and closed off, speaking as if every word was bitten loose. Cold enough to make her shiver, except his eye lights; they blazed with heat, anger, and something, something else. Both of them were leaning much too far into the other's personal space and...

Ah.

That explained some things. Papyrus was flirtatious to a fault, teasingly sweet, but she’d never once seen that flirtation come to anything. This was not that easy, casual flirting, this was something else entirely. 

Whoever the other skeleton was, friend, lover, foe, he didn’t stay long. He gave Papyrus a contemptuous look, one that he shared with the entirety of the bar before he stormed out, his boots clacking loudly on Muffet's freshly mopped floor.

Muffet did not miss the way he hesitated at the door, flicking a last glance to where Papyrus was sitting at the end of the bar. Papyrus didn't notice. 

She waited until the other stepped out into the swirling snow before she set a bottle of honey at Papyrus’s elbow and didn’t bother to add it to her mental tab. Papyrus was likely the closest thing she had to a friend, her own kin aside, and from what she understood, friends did kind things for each other from time to time. 

“thanks, m,” Papyrus said tiredly. “i could use a drink after dealing with that asshole.”

They both knew that Papyrus didn’t need much of an excuse to drink. 

She considered the other skeleton, his visible frustrated anger, the way he'd gestured at the empty bottles in front of Papyrus. It was a scene she'd seen played out before with other Monsters, but never for Papyrus. Her bar was a place of forgetfulness for most; not for Muffet.

“Your friend seemed worried about you,” she said, polishing the glass in her hand.

Papyrus startled, thickly swallowing down a mouthful of honey. For all the sweetness he'd consumed, his expression was decidedly sour, “yeah, right.”

She didn’t argue with him, only polished a second glass to mirror the shine of the first. Muffet was not the chattiest of Monsters and when she did speak, she said what she meant. Papyrus knew her well enough to know that. 

True to her expectations, he sighed, resting his chin on his folded arms. “i dunno. maybe.”

“Do you want him to worry about you?” Muffet asked curiously. It was hardly her business; Muffet made a point of keeping her nose out of the lives of other Monsters, but at the end of the day, she was a bartender. You heard things, too many to avoid, and she thought about weeks of Papyrus teleporting her just outside the ruins, standing back and smoking, waiting despite the cold while she spoke softly through the heavy door to her kinfolk, reassuring them they'd be together again soon, that she would never abandon them. 

Papyrus was her friend. She wouldn't abandon him, either, and she understood the importance of clearing a debt. 

Beneath her questioning gaze, he shrank back, sinking in a little deeper into the bar stool and his eye lights were downcast, “maybe.”

She nodded decisively. The bar was her livelihood, true, and her kinfolk were depending on her earning money to rescue them. But not at the expense of her friend. "Then you should think about what will make you happier. This," she tapped the depleted bottle with a free hand and pointed at the door with another, "Or that."

Papyrus kept his eye lights down and took the honey bottle in both hands. He didn't open it, only rolled it between his palms, watching it ooze stickily inside. “i don't think it matters much, m. i’m not exactly a hot catch on my best days and that guy—"

Exasperated, she rolled all of her eyes and gave him a gentle slap on the back of the skull. “Papyrus, no one is ever as hard on you as you are on yourself. Do you know what I see?" He shook his head and she thought again of his kindness, of his easy smile and sharp humor. She didn't see him in a romantic light, true, but it wasn't her that needed to. "I see someone that anyone should be grateful to be with. Even your peculiar friend.”

"yeah?” Papyrus gave her a lopsided grin, "you really think so?"

“Yeah,” she mimicked his drawl. “And I have five eyes so I see things a lot better than you.”

“thanks, m,” he said softly. He set the bottle down with exaggerated care and Muffet took it, setting it beneath the counter. Eventually, he'd ask her for it again and neither of them would pretend otherwise, but maybe he'd ask for it a little less.

Maybe.

She flapped a set of impatient hands at him. “Well? Go after him, you won’t get anywhere sitting here.”

With easy grace, he hopped down from the barstool and blew her a kiss. “wish me luck!” he called, strolling out the door. 

She didn't really think he was going to need any luck, but nonetheless, she did, even going so far as to murmur a short prayer to Arachne. The old gods had abandoned all of them beneath this mountain, but old habits die hard. The door swung shut behind Papyrus with a gentle tinkle of the bell. With some bemusement, she noted he was going the opposite way his visitor had, though she had no doubt it was somehow the correct route. Papyrus always knew a shortcut.

With Papyrus gone, there was only one patron left, a familiar drunken snore coming from one corner. Muffet let him sleep as she wiped down the counters. It was all right, the bar wasn't closed just yet, and that one had paid his tab already this week. 

Eventually, all of them do.

-finis-


End file.
